A Notebook on Peace: Reflections on Cinema and Perception

Abstract

Mary Zournazi looks at questions of violence and the urgent need to invent a visual and moral language for peace in her chapter, “A Notebook on Peace: Reflections on Cinema and Perception.” Her film Dogs of Democracy (2016) captures the care and concern people have for the street animals in Athens, a city facing social and economic crises. She touches on the problem of perception, namely that people’s perceptions of the world differ from the ways in which people live and experience it. Art most often—and cinema in Zournazi’s case—provides the space to approach and respond to violent situations with sincerity rather than reacting in retaliation with the same force or violence. She also reflects on filmmakers who respond to violence without reproducing it.